“OK.”
He nods once. Approval, maybe. Or trust.
The lights dim.
The roar shifts, confused, curious. An MC’s voice booms through the stadium, announcing an unexpected message, something unscheduled, something special.
The curtain stirs.
This is it.
I take one breath. Then another.
And then I step forward, into the light.
I don’t look at the crowd. I look at her.
Lila is across the stage, frozen in the wings. Wide-eyed, mouth parted in surprise.
The crowd’s roar rises like a tidal wave.
I lift the mic, eyes locked on Lila.
Chapter thirty-five
Lila
I’m in the wings, half-shadow, half light. The kind of place that’s supposed to feel safe because no one is looking here.
Except I feel the shift anyway.
The attention swinging. The air changing temperature.
I glance at Manny, but he’s not watching me. He’s staring out toward the stage, posture gone rigid in a way that makes my stomach tighten.
The announcer’s voice booms over the stadium, smooth and practiced, but I barely register the words. I feel them more than I understand them, like distant thunder.
“Tonight, Lila wanted to give you something unexpected.”
My skin prickles.
The voice continues. “In her world, truth matters. Sometimes that means letting someone else speak.”
My brain trips over itself.
“Please welcome Camden Drake.”
And then I see Cam.
On the stage.
A microphone in his hand like it belongs there. Like he’s done this a hundred times. Like he isn’t the reason my chest has been tight for days.
A wave of flashes bursts from the crowd. Phone screens rising like a field of little moons.
The huge screens above the stage catch him, zooming in, making him bigger than life.
And still, somehow, he feels closer than that.
